The Pack
by LadyTeldra
Summary: The Inuzuka were not the first to partner with a particular animal. They were in fact the off branch of a much older society. A pack. Now, a new group must break away to form their own way, and where else to go than where their onetime brethren reside? Konoha, meet a new clan, a new pack.


**AN:** So… *blushes* This came about by complete accident… Basically by looking around the internet. Of course, the idea itself wasn't actually inspired by anything particular besides a random comment of "Hey! This would be neat!" and "What if…."

We, in a fit of randomness, began to throw the following story together. We being Domino and I, LadyTeldra. We don't have much written yet, but we do have a general idea of where this is going. It is for that reason it begins so far back.

**Disclaimer:** We do not own Naruto or any ideas related to said franchise. We do however own the laptops on which the following material was written. Thank you Google Docs!

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><p><strong>Time Period:<strong> After Minato becomes a genin: 55 years after founding

12 years before Naruto's birth

24 years till series start

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><p><strong>Prologue: A Splintering Occurs<strong>

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><p>"Hokkaido Kaoru, you are found to be in contempt of several long-standing traditions of the pack." An elderly and powerful figure stands before the crowd, an imposing stature of muscle and hard-earned scars. His aura spreads over the clearing, and his face his held in stern disapproval. "Do you have any words to say in refute?"<p>

A slim figure stands facing him, her head held high and not an ounce of shame in her golden eyes, "Sire, there are no words of refute, because I have done nothing wrong. Long standing traditions mean nothing in the eyes of the Wolf, for they are of the past and not of the now."

A growl resonates from the figure, the pack leader. "You refuse to find a mate. You refuse to mate the strongest male. You refuse to take your mantle of responsibilities!" He begins to pace in agitation. "It is not merely tradition. It is the way of our kind and of our brethren! It is the very instinct that guides us!"

"When a male can make me submit, then I will mate! No male has the power to make me do so, therefore submit to a weaker male I will not! My instincts guide me to choose a strong mate, but there is no strong mate to choose! Find me one and I will gladly mate him, but I will not submit to an inferior!" She snarled back at him, her fangs shining in the low light; her ears flat against her skull and tail raised high, showing her defiance.

The alpha seems to deflate slightly. "Then you refuse to admit to your wrongs? Refuse to adhere to pack laws?"

Kaoru sighs slightly, releasing some of the tension in her body, "Sire, I can't. You raised me to only submit to the strong, and I cannot do that and follow pack law," Her body tenses again as she growls, "I will fight until my last breath, just to show that none have the power to make me." She glares at him, still defiant.

Kaoru's sire turns from her. "Hokkaido Kaoru. If that is the case, then we have but one choice." His voice comes out soft, but it stays steady. "From this day henceforth, you are cast from the pack. No longer may you claim the name. No longer the protection and companionship. You are to leave by sundown." He faces the rest of the pack once more. "Those that sympathize may leave as well. But know this: you may not turn stop, you may not turn back, and no more are you family to those here." He begins to walk away. "Begone."

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><p>Sunset, kilometers away from Hokkaido grounds<p>

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><p>Eight figures and several wolves stand close together with small packs of supplies at their feet. The group varies from each other greatly with five men and three women, no two look exactly alike.<p>

" You didn't have to follow me. This was my punishment, I didn't want to drag you all with me...:" The familiar figure of Kaoru looks slightly defeated, but still somehow proud as she scans the mismatched little pack.

The oldest male yawns as he lightly scratches under an eyepatch. "You'd have been lost within a day without at least one of us."

"And within a month without all of us." A female states rather proudly from beside him. "You need us and we need you."

"Ai...You are our alpha…" A smaller boy states, wide innocent eyes staring up at her. "We swore it remember?"

Kaoru stares at them blankly for a minute, " I hate you… Both of you… I hope you know that," She turns to the boy, "Aoi, I swore it and I meant it, but that doesn't mean that you had to follow me. You could have stayed in the safety of the pack. Now you won;t even know when our next meal will be." She sighs, putting a hand on a lilac colored wolf, petting her softly.

"Our next meal will be when we catch it." A gruff voice responds, a heavy broadsword catching the dying light. "Less mouths to feed now too."

"How could we trade our flower for some gruff old man once more?" Another male says dramatically. "It would be cruel!"

"Flower am I…?" Kaoru's eyes narrow as she glares at him, " Careful Shiro…"

"A very harsh… sturdy flower I assure you! One that grows only in the most extreme conditions!" He panically attempts to backtrack actually walking backwards and tripping over another wolf.

"Harsh and sturdy now too? I'm glad you think so well of me, dearest Shiro." She stalks towards him predatorily, "Come now, say more pretty words to me so I can beat them into you later." She grins her fangs at him, looking more and more feral with every word.

Shiro lets out a eep and ducks behind the first male speaker, who merely sighs and pushes him away with a foot.

"I think what Shiro attempted to say was that a pack would never leave their alpha alone." The last female speaks up, her soft voice soothing to everyone's nerves. "Just as our alpha would never leave their pack behind."

"Aneki is Aneki and Aneki is Kenji's!" A child-like voice chimes in, though the figure seems grown.

Kaoru blinks and goes back to her previous stance, looking slightly downtrodden, "Thank you Mio, Kenji…" She looks at the wolves sitting by their various partners' feet, " Shii, Nii? Kaede? What do you think?"

Shii, a large, white female with a crisscrossing scar over her face, speaks for all of them as the eldest wolf in attendance. "You signed our contract. A contract in blood may not be broken by human means." She states simply. "We follow our partners and our partners follow you." She seems to give the wolf equivalent of a shrug as if such a matter were simple.

Kaoru looks them all over and stands, "Yui, Fui? Is the pack in harmony with the hierarchy? Ryou, Yasu? Is the hierarchy in order?"

The lilac wolf, Yui, stands and looks over at her blue furred sister and they slowly circle the assembled wolves, looking each of them over. The blue sister, Fui, addresses them, "Brothers? Sisters? Is there harmony? Do you submit?"

"Each is in order." Shii begins.

"A new cycle begins." Nii, the other's black and white counterpart, continues.

"One path has ended."

"A new pack begins." Nii states, finishing the old ritual words of new beginnings.

Ryou bows deeply to Kaoru. "We are yours to command, though we have no name."

Kaoru nods at him and grins at the pack, "Honshu sounds like a good name for our new pack, what do you think? Much better than the old Hokkaido!" She lets out a laugh.

"And where are we to begin, Alpha?" Yasu asks.

Kaoru winces and looks at them sheepishly, "The only place I can think of is with the Dogs in Konoha. You sure you still want to follow me?"

"If it is your will, it is our path."

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><p><strong>End<strong>

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><p><strong>Notes:<strong> We actually do a lot of research for this! So here are some of the things you can learn from our works! There were two subspecies of wolves throughout Japan. One the Hokkaido wolf went extinct and lived only in the area in which it was named. The second, the Honshu wolf, also extinct, lived in a larger range of areas.. Okami is a word for wolf and a mythical creature. Therefore to distinguish the two packs as well as the Inuzuka's we choose the subspecies names.

In general, mother dogs are dams and fathers are sires. Most know that one, but there you go.

The timeline we've established may not be exact, but it's as close as we could establish with what we know and our poor math skills. ^^;;

Also, so everyone knows, everything makes more sense in our heads.


End file.
